


George Luz vs. The Smiths

by aces_low



Series: drabbles and ish [15]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 08:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11353695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Luz tries to prove that he's a much better person for Joe to turn to than Morrissey





	George Luz vs. The Smiths

**Author's Note:**

> Little thing that came from my head canon that Joe Toye would totally listen to The Smiths, and also a real life issue.
> 
> Also, I just wanted to write an Established Relationship thing where they're just boyfriends who love each other.

There's music playing when Luz opens the door to his apartment.

He tilts his head a little, trying to discern the tune, as it's muffled by the wall separating the bedroom and the entrance way. Setting his bag on the couch, he nearly groans when the unmistakable warble of Morrissey's voice reaches his ears.

Luz never had much of an opinion on The Smiths growing up, no one he knew really listened to them, and it wasn't ever really to his taste, though not enough that he disliked the band. 

After meeting and falling in love with Joe Toye, Luz has come to hate the band. It's not really The Smith's fault, it comes down to the fact that he can only associate it with one thing - Joe pouting.

A pouting Joe is Luz's least favorite version of Joe, and that includes angry, pissed off Joe - though that may be because when Joe is in an angry mood he often goes to work off most of the violent energy at the gym, and then comes home and fucks Luz into the mattress, or the kitchen floor, or up against the front door - Luz gets benefits from a pissed off Joe.

All he gets when Joe is pouting is a quieter boyfriend, who nearly sucks up all the good energy with his foul mood. And it's often like pulling teeth to get Joe to even talk about what's bothering him. 

Luz, of course, also hates it because he never wants Joe to be unhappy, he loves him and only wants good things for him. But also, an unhappy Joe is often unwilling to even kiss him, folding in on himself and avoiding everything, including Luz.

Usually, there are warning signs, Joe tends to get grumpier and sulkier over the week before he goes into full on pouting. Luz thinks back to this morning, but Joe hadn’t been acting off, in fact, he’d even smacked his ass before he’d left for work, leaving Luz to believe that he’d definitely be getting laid tonight. Instead, he’s going to have to act like the good boyfriend he definitely is and get this fixed, ideally before they go to sleep tonight. 

He’s going in completely unprepared, but Luz knows he can do it. He’s never lost to The Smiths yet.

The music is louder in their bedroom, and he walks in to see Joe, sitting on their bed, his computer on his lap as he frowns down at the screen.

Joe looks up when Luz walks in, says, ‘hey,’ then looks back down at his computer.

Luz grabs some clothes to change into, to get out of his work clothes. 

“What do you want for dinner?” he asks, as he changes.

“Um,” Joe starts, finally looking up at him. “I don’t really feel like making anything tonight.”

Luz shrugs, as well as he can with a shirt over his head. “That’s fine, I can order something. What sounds good?”

Joe sighs. “I’m not really hungry.”

“Ok, well, I’ll get something we both like, and you can have some when you’re ready.”

Joe just nods and goes back to staring at his computer. Luz watches him for a moment, but it doesn’t look like Joe is planning on looking at him again, so he goes out to the kitchen to get the menu. It’ll take over an hour for the food to get there, and Luz takes that as a challenge to get Joe’s mood up, at least enough to eat, by the time it arrives.

He walks back into the bedroom just as Morrissey sings, ‘I wear black on the outside, cause black is how I feel on the inside.’

“Ok, let’s just...” Luz says, picking up the computer off of Joe’s lap.

He pauses the music before setting it off to the side of the bed and sits in front of Joe, who is now visibly pouting at Luz taking his ridiculous music away.

“What?” he asks, his voice tired and worn.

“What going on, Joe?”

Joe huffs and pushes the blankets out of the way of Luz’s legs.

“It’s nothing,” he finally says, as Luz continues to just stare at him.

“Well, it’s not nothing. I come home to you sitting in the dark, like an emo teen, with The Smiths playing. You don’t want to eat anything, and you haven’t even noticed that I’m wearing your favorite shirt.”

Joe frowns, but reaches out to thumb at the fabric of his shirt that Luz often likes to steal from him, mostly just so Joe will tear it off him.

“I noticed,” Joe says softly, tugging on the shirt a bit before letting go completely.

“What happened?” Luz pushes. 

He doesn’t normally push when Joe is upset or angry about something, mostly because he usually doesn’t have to, but also because he understands that sometimes Joe just needs to work through whatever it is that’s bothering him and then he’ll come talk to him.

But when Joe is sulking like this, he’ll never tell Luz until Luz makes him. He just withdraws more and more into himself, and the longer he goes without talking about it, the longer it takes for him to feel better.

Joe shakes his head and rolls his eyes, but Luz can tell it’s not in a response to him.

“Did something happen at work?” Luz tries, though he can’t imagine anything happening at work that would make Joe get all broody. Usually when he’s unhappy with work he just gets frustrated and annoyed.

“I’m fine,” Joe insists, even going so far as to look into Luz’s eyes, but there’s a vulnerability behind them that he can’t hide.

“Do you want me to call Malarkey?”

He doesn’t usually suggest Malarkey, since he’d prefer to work through anything with Joe just the two of them, but sometimes there are things that Joe would rather talk about with his friend than his boyfriend. Plus, Malarkey has been dealing with Joe in states like this for much longer than Luz has.

“No, it’s-” Joe starts and stops, scowling at the realization that Luz almost got him to talk, and Luz counts that scowl as a tiny victory, or at least a step in the right direction.

“It’s?” 

“It’s nothing,” Joe says, again. “It’s stupid.”

That causes alarm bells to start ringing in Luz’s head. 

“Joe-” he starts but Joe cuts him off with a growl.

“I know, I know you don’t like when I used that word, but it’s true. I’m being stupid.”

“I really doubt that.”

Joe turns his glare on him for a moment before his eyes soften a fraction. 

He really has been good about not calling himself stupid over the past few years, but there’s one thing that still has a tendency to get Joe throwing that word around more than he has any real need to.

“Did something happen with your class?” 

Luz had thought this was all over with. Joe had finally - after years of starting and stopping and starting again - finished his final class to get his degree. He had worked so hard to go back to school and work full-time. There had been countless late nights and weekends filled with nothing but studying or writing papers. Not that Luz ever complained, he knew how important this was for Joe, and he was behind him one hundred percent. But he knew that there couldn’t be a problem with any of Joe’s grades not being good enough to graduate, he’d gotten great scores in all his classes.

“No, it’s...I talked to my advisor today and...ya know how I was supposed to graduate with honors?”

Luz nods, he’d been so proud of Joe when he’d told him. Joe had tried to play it off like it was no big deal, but Luz had known he was thrilled. They had gone to celebrate with some of their friends when Joe had gotten his final grade back, and everyone had made a point to congratulate Joe on not just going back and finishing school, but doing so well with it. 

“Well, she said that I didn’t have enough credits from their school to qualify for the ‘With Honors’ designation,” Joe tells him, ducking his head down. 

“Wait, what? You don’t have enough credits?” Joe had plenty of credits, he’d been able to transfer quite a few of the ones he’d accumulated over the years, from all the different schools he’d attended.

Joe shrugs. “I have enough to graduate, that’s not a problem, I’m gonna graduate. Just...not with honors. I told you, it’s stupid.”

He rolls his eyes at himself and goes to move off of the bed, but Luz grabs his arm to keep him in place.

“That’s not stupid, Joe. That sucks, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s just a few words on a piece of paper,” Joe says, his voice tired, like he’s been trying to convince himself of this fact all day. “It doesn’t mean anything, all that matters is that I’m getting my degree. That’s all I wanted when I went back to school. It’s just…”

He trails off, blowing out a large breath.

“It’s just that you thought you were going to get the recognition that you deserved for the hard work you put in. Like I said, it’s not stupid. That’s a bullshit rule.” Luz nearly snarls in anger at the school trying to take this away from Joe.

“It sucks because if I hadn’t thought I was getting it this wouldn’t bother me at all,” Joe says with a laugh that’s not particularly humorous.

“Hey, you worked your ass off for that degree, and that acknowledgment for how well you did. Hell, you did better than most of those fucking classmates you had to deal with for months on end. You deserve that recognition.”

“I guess I just got myself into thinking how I’d be proud to show off my degree and have it say ‘with honors’ on it, but it’s-”

“Don’t say stupid again,” Luz cuts him off.

Joe finally lets a small grin slip through and he wraps a hand around Luz’s forearm.

“And you _should_ be proud of yourself. I know how well you did, and our friends know how well you did. And I’m so proud of you, Joe.” His voice turns angry as he thinks about the school screwing Joe over like this. “I should call someone, let them know that this policy is idiotic and you deserve to be recognized for all-”

It’s Joe’s turn to cut him off, as he pulls Luz forward, capturing his lips to stop his movement and his words. Luz gasps a little against Joe’s mouth, but quickly finds his bearings enough to wrap his arms around Joe and move in closer.

“Thank you,” Joe says, pulling away for a moment, then moving back in to place another soft kiss on his lips.

Luz maneuvers himself so he’s fulling sitting on Joe’s lap now. “For being proud of you? I hope you know I always am.”

Joe looks up at him, his fingers playing with the hem of his shirt. “Well that, but also for being angry for me.”

Luz smiles. “I promise, that when you’re too down to be angry I’ll do it for you. I don’t do it as good as you, but I think I can hold my own.”

That makes Joe chuckle. “I’d definitely put my money on you if you had an anger contest against Lip, you’d crush him.”

“Damn right,” Luz starts, then realizes who Joe had put him up against. “Hey! I could win against...well…”

Joe grins, snaking his hands up Luz’s sides.

“Babe at least?” Luz tries.

Instead of responding, Joe moves them - quicker than Luz is ever able to comprehend when he does this - so that Luz is flat on his back as Joe hovers above him.

“It’s ok, Georgie, I prefer you happy,” Joe says, before kissing his way down Luz’s neck.

Luz gasps at the sensation of Joe’s lips against his sensitive skin, trying not to get too lost in it before he can get Joe’s attention again.

“Hey,” he is finally able to say after a minute, tugging uselessly as Joe’s arm, but Joe follows the request and looks up at him. “You too, ya know?”

Joe’s smile turns sweeter than the more playful one he had been sporting and he leaves a soft kiss against his lips that, despite its tenderness, leaves Luz a little breathless.

He’s just about to inquire about why Joe hasn’t pulled his shirt off yet when there’s a loud knocking on the front door.

“I think the food is here,” Joe says when Luz just looks confused at the noise for a moment.

He groans, forgetting he’d ordered food and really no longer in the mood for it at the moment. But when Joe sits up to allow him space to move, Luz reluctantly rolls himself off the bed.

Joe is grabbing plates and utensils when Luz walks into the kitchen with the food.

“You gonna eat?” he asks, setting the food down to start separating it.

Joe nods. “‘M hungry now.”

Luz grins as Joe kisses the side of his head, before taking the plates into the living room.

George Luz: 13, The Smiths: 0

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Lyrics mentioned come from the song: Unloveable by The Smiths


End file.
